Monday, September 10, 2018

We decided to stay another day in Great Falls, MT in order to drive to Logan Pass in Glacier National Park. We had planned driving there today and camping along Lake McDonald, but due to the forest fires and smoke, western entrances through Apgar were limited or closed, including the campgrounds at Lake McDonald. 


We left Great Falls campground at 7:00am and 46 degrees and arrived at St. Mary Visitor's Center at 9:15am. Again, a windy trip northwest on Rt 89 north with acres and acres of harvested wheat with very little traffic. Bill saw a coyote on the shoulder and Wilma an Alpaca (domestic) in the fields. Before we actually entered the Glacier National Park, 

we entered Blackfeet Indian Reservation Tribal lands and crossed the Two Medicine River where Lewis and 3 Corps soldiers had the fight with the Blackfeet on the eastward journey in 1806.

It was 45 degrees and windy when we arrived at the Logan Pass Visitors Center (6,646 ft). Glacier Park is only open from July 1st to mid-September at the latest. We drove in through St Mary since western approaches were closed or limited. There had to be hundreds of people at the St Mary and Logan Pass Visitor Centers, cars at every lookout or cutoff taking pictures. Quite sumthin'

Wilma on the left hunkered down at the shuttle stop.

Wil and I got aboard the Logan Pass shuttle at 11:00am. The road winds along sheer cliffs high along the cliffs above Saint Mary Lake to stunning views of the mountains and valleys and waterfalls. There is still snow in the upper reaches of the mountaintops. The bus driver said that the ash from the fires has darkened the snow caps to dirty white. The Park has a large number of campgrounds and walking paths throughout and brochures and signs warn of bear. Wilma and I walked up quite a steep wooden walkway for about 1.5 miles to Hidden Lake Overlook at 7,140ft. The wind picked up, temperatures dropped and we could see hazy smoke and smelled it for certain. A very invigorating hike up and up and up.

View from the Visitors Center.  A large crowd inside the
Center was viewing a Big Horn Sheep on the hillside,
directly above the Canada flag, above the treeline.

The weather changed in 2 hours from sun and blue sky to clouds and smoky haze.

Sperry Glacier 

We left Glacier for Great Falls at 2:00pm and "took a different road." Well this was a 25 mile detour from major road construction on Rt 49 through very steep and windy mountain roads with hairpin turns and no guardrails, ending up in East Glacier Park Village. The other interesting factor here was that there were Angus steer walking on the road and shoulders at times.

Finally, on our way back to Great Falls on Rt 89 south we saw firefighters fighting grass fires along the highway with the high winds blowing embers sideways on other fields. We got in at 5:00pm, had dinner and crashed.

Tomorrow we plan to head down to Missoula, MT.